WOODSTOCK (1970) *** Available in several formats, my recommendation is the director's cut which has an additional hour or so of footage. It's not like the narrative momentum could be interfered with; in fact the extra time makes viewing a bit more like attending a real concert in that you have to abandon the action to use the bathroom, grab a beer, have a smoke, whatever. It's interesting that the myth of Woodstock has prevailed given such compelling evidence to the contrary. I mean...bad acid, trash everywhere, unsavoury characters (I recall reading somewhere that no less than Aerosmith's Steven Tyler was milling about, ripping people off)...and I've never been so loaded that hydroplaning through mud on my back sounded fun. Bad hair days are ubiquitous by day three! The philosophical meanderings of the stoned attendees are relevatory only to themselves, but therein lies the secret: good vibes are clearly in abundance, most everyone does appear to be having a good time; the philosophical vision is of that sort that most confounds worldly philosophers-it's is one of practice rather than words. Given all that, I don't know how anyone could not wish that they'd attended. From Richie Havens and Joan Baez (singing "Joe Hill" no less)...the minute the music started any problems were dwarfed...in precisely the same way that the myth has dwarfed them. The myth, then, is it reality and is it music? So who won the most famous ever battle of the bands? Jimi Hendrix, without question. Slapping his guitar in ways that could never be taught, inventing entirely new sounds that he clearly anticipates in their fullness in front of half a million, how can anyone have that many original musical ideas in a lifetime, much less in a single set? Janis Joplin and the Who would be my selections for the coveted runner-up trophy (the entire thing's highly competitive, you know), and look there's Sly and the Family Stone inventing funk! Country Joe and the Fish must be mentioned, I hadn't realized what a fine band he had. For some reason footage of the Grateful Dead isn't included (cameramen lost in "space?"; though we do get a nice shot of Jerry Garcia introducing a joint), and during the excellent Jefferson Airplane set we mainly get to see Marty Balin standing there, properly awed by what Jack Cassady and Jorma Kaukonen are doing. Which brings to mind that several swastika's can be see throughout the film, apparently hippie efforts to appropriate "bad symbols" for good, much in the way that they sport army jackets. Some things aren't worth appropriating. Carlos Santana, David Crosby, too many great musical moments to mention, but one of my favorite bits was the good village dad saying "if you got hungry kids, you got to feed 'em."
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